Variations on the series Tribunal de les Aigües by Antoni Miró

Jordi Botella

I

Mother water blood of the earth

The heart beats magma and sky blue

Animates the body and flees from the well

Sleeps in the stagnant cereal cradle

The man of clay is born from the riverbed gravel

II

Miraculous Sumerian water of milk

From bread the dance next to the fire

Civil water origin and sign

Stalks register herds

Of wheat the panting of the mare 

III

Law of the hieroglyphic river

Rules over and controls confusion

The monster polishes quartz

Law of the medicine river

Atlas banner without canopy 

IV

The flow bears away the leech

Each irrigation ditch is an artery

Each drop a pact

The law always in the word

And the channel a lesson in justice